Hi everyone! Today, I wanted to discuss good old Bossy R and how to build up from phonemic awareness to higher order thinking. Of course, it will incorporate some activities and include a freebie.

I like to set foundations and build up when it comes to mastering phonics skills. I have these levels I like to use. First is identification, then isolation, blending, segmenting, addition (adding sounds together), and substitution. Once students get those foundations set, then they are well prepared to spell the words, read the words, and write with the words. Now if you are saying, say what to all that, I actually have broken down each area below and put some suggested activities with each. With many of the areas, some phonemic awareness activities can be used during carpet time or in small groups. However, I have included some actual phonics ideas with each area too.

1. Identify Bossy R. Here students are learning to identify words that contain those r-controlled vowels. This typically involves distinguishing between words that contain bossy r and those that don’t.

Identifying Activity #1: For a phonemic awareness activity, you can simply name words. Students can point their bossy fingers if the words contain an r-controlled phoneme.

Identifying Activity #2: Sort words. Students can sort words that contain bossy r, and those that do not.

2. Isolate Bossy R. Here students isolate or locate where the bossy r sound is in the word.

Isolating Activity #1: Where it is. You can place out just about anything for this activity, counters, traditional box frame, and TOYS!!! You say a word and students tap if the r-controlled vowel is in the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
Isolating Activity #2: Isolate with a shark toy. Snag up a shark picture or toy from somewhere for some extra fun! This is very similar to the Where it is activity, only anything with a shark deserves its own activity number, right? 😉 Students simply tap where the r-controlled vowel sound is located. Is it in the beginning? Tap the shark’s head. Is it in the middle? Tap the shark’s body. Is it at the end? Tap the shark’s tail.

Isolating Activity #3: Students show the isolated sounds by writing the phonemes where it belongs.

3. Blend Bossy R. Here students take the individual sounds and put it all together. Getting students to blend the words fluently for reading is the goal.

Blending Activity #1: Blend the letters. You can write some words on some index cards and let students practice blending the words in small groups or as a center activity.

Blending Activity #2: Roll a word. You write the phonemes on some dice that have the dry erase option, create cards to fit in some dice with the sleeves, or put some stickers with the phonemes on some foam dice. I recommend including not only basic consonants and bossy r, but also some digraphs and blends. Students roll the dice and blend away. You can even put a game twist on it with them trying to make the most real words.

Blending Activity #3: Show your blending. Let them show you their blending on paper with activities that require them to connect words to pictures. You could even have them illustrate what the words on a separate sheet.

4. Segment Bossy R. Here students break apart words that contain bossy r. An example is the word surf. S-ur-f. This is different from isolating the sounds because here students are dealing with each sound in the word, instead of only isolating the r-controlled vowel.

Segmenting Activity #1: Break apart bossy r words. For a phonemic awareness activity, students can hold invisible hammers or toy hammers. They can break apart each phoneme in the words by pounding out each sound.

Segmenting Activity #2: Segmenting in the box. You can actually do a simple phonemic activity with this. Say a word. Students point to each box as they say each segmented sound.

Segmenting Activity #3: Isolate in the boxes (phonics style). Students segment the word by writing the phonemes in the boxes.

Adding Activity #1: When art becomes a cart. Say some words and have students add an additional phoneme. Example: What word would you have if you added “c” to art? Cart. What word would you have if you added “s’ to tar? Star. What word would you have if you added “sh” to ark? Shark.

Adding Activity #2: Word adding. Students add the graphemes together to form the words.

6. Sub Bossy R. Here students play around with the words by subbing phonemes in the word for other phonemes.

Subbing Activity #1: Turning sharks into parks. Say some words and have students sub one of the phonemes for another phoneme. Example: If you take the word, shark, and change “sh” to “p,” what do you get? Park. If I take the word, torn, and change “th” to “t,” what do I get? Thorn.

Subbing Activity #2: Word Munching. Have students munch off the phoneme and add a different letter on top to form a new word.

7. Moving Up to Spelling with R-Controlled Vowels. I like to incorporate spelling too. I think it important students have time to develop some phonemic awareness and phonics skills with the words before they are expected to memorize a bunch of spelling words though. After all, they can’t memorize every word in the world that contains an r-controlled vowel off a spelling list!

Spelling Activity #1: Build the words. Students can use letter manipulatives to build the words.

Spelling Activity #2: Crossword Puzzles. You can use one of the free crossword building sites out there to create some crossword puzzles.

8. Comprehending Words with Bossy R. It’s important that students read r-controlled vowel words within context.

Comprehending Activity: Students can identify words they see with the r-controlled vowels in books or passages they read.

9. Incorporating Higher-Order Thinking with Bossy R Words. I believe it is important to push the boundaries of simple identification and application to synthesis and creativity. Ok, say what? It’s important to push them up on that Bloom’s Taxonomy aka use their brains!

Higher-order thinking Activity: Have students use a list of bossy r words to write a fun, short story.

Here is some organization inspiration. This is my organized binder of printables. This is actually from my diphthong no prepset, but they are set-up the same with the same activities. I have these broken into different sections with the section dividers I created and include in the resource. It is so nice to have them all pulled together like this. Easy to find, and makes differentiating instruction easy too. 🙂

If you have read the sister post on my r-controlled vowels here, you would have heard my spill about how I like to set foundations and build up when it comes to mastering phonics skills. I have these levels I like to use. First is identification, then isolation, blending, segmenting, addition (adding sounds together), and substitution. Once students get those foundations set, then they are well prepared to spell the words, read the words, and write with the words. Now if you are saying, say what to all that, I actually have broken down each area below and put some suggested activities with each. With many of the areas, some phonemic awareness activities can be used during carpet time or in small groups. However, I have included some actual phonics ideas with each area too.

1. Identify Diphthongs. Here students are learning to identify words that contain those diphthongs. This typically involves distinguishing between words that contain a diphthong and those that don’t.

Identifying Diphthongs Activity #1: For a phonemic awareness activity, you can simply name words. Than students can do one of the following reactions below as a response to the word. Of course, for the diphthongs that sound alike, you can choose between one of the pairs to decrease confusion. I just wanted to throw some options out there for you to choose. 😉

Students can put on a frown for words with the “ow” sound.

Students can hold their ears like it is loud for “ou”.

They can make crab claws for “aw”.

They can launch when they hear “au” by putting their hands together and making a rocket go through the air.

Students can give “the look” for words with “oo” as in look. (Haha, I love this one…isn’t she so precious! And having a class giving the look…hysterical!)

They can reach for the moon for “oo”.

They can point for “oi”.

They can shake their head with joy for “oy”.

Identifying Diphthong Activity #2: Sort words for Phonics Activity. Students can sort words that have the diphthong, and those that do not.

2. Isolate Diphthongs. Here students isolate or locate where the diphthong sound is in the word.

Isolating Activity #1: Where it is. You can place out just about anything for this activity, counters, traditional box frame, and TOYS!!! You say a word and students tap if the diphthong is in the beginning, middle, or end of the word.

Isolating Activity #2: Students show the isolated sounds by writing the grapheme where it belongs.

3. Blend Diphthongs. Here students take the individual sounds and put it all together. Getting students to blend the words fluently for reading is the goal.

Blending Activity #1: Say each phoneme separately and have students blend them together. Example: Say h-oo-p, and Students say hoop.

Blending Activity #2: Blend the letters. You can write some words on some index cards and let students practice blending the words in small groups or as a center activity.

Blending Activity #3: Show your blending. Let them show you their blending on paper with activities that require them to connect words to pictures.

4. Segment Diphthongs. Here students break apart words that contain diphthongs. An example is the word boot. B-oo-t. This is different from isolating the sounds because here students are dealing with each sound in the word, instead of only isolating where the diphthong is located.

Segmenting Activity #1: Toy stomp the sounds. For a phonemic awareness activity, students use a toy to stomp out the phonemes in the word. Example: Stomp Book. B-oo-k.

Segmenting Activity #2: Segmenting in the box. You can actually do a simple phonemic activity with this. Say a word. Students point to each box as they say each segmented sound.

Segmenting Activity #3: Segmenting in the boxes (phonics style). Students segment the sounds by writing the phonemes in the boxes.

Adding Activity #1: When aws become paws. Say some words and have students add an additional phoneme. Example: What word would you have if you added “p” to aw? Paw. What word would you have if you added “t” to oy? Toy. What word would you have if you added “h” to owl? Howl. (Isn’t the kitten sooooo adorable?)

Adding Activity #2: Word adding. If you have some dice with graphemes on them, students can do some word adding to form words.

6. Sub Diphthongs. Here students play around with the words by subbing phonemes in the word for other phonemes.

Subbing Activity #1: Turning books into cooks. Say some words and have students sub one of the phonemes for another phoneme. Example: If you take the word, book, and change “b” to “c,” what do you get? Cook. If I take the word, down, and change “d” to “cl,” what do I get? Clown.

Subbing Activity #2: Word Claws. Give some word cards to students and a toy claw . Have students pinch off the phoneme and add a different letter on top to form a new word.

Subbing Activity #3: Students can sub the beginning grapheme for another sound and illustrate the new word.

7. Moving Up to Spelling with Diphthongs. I like to incorporate spelling too. I think it important students have time to develop some phonemic awareness and phonics skills with the words before they are expected to memorize a bunch of spelling words though. Just makes spelling much more easier!

Spelling Activity #1: Build the words. Students can use letter manipulatives to build the words.

Spelling Activity #2: Crossword Puzzles. I love using crossword puzzles for spelling practice because students are practicing their spelling, and they don’t even realize it!

8. Comprehending Words with Diphthongs. It’s important that students read words with diphthongs within context.

Comprehending Words Activity: Students can identify words they see with the diphthongs in books or passages they read.

9. Incorporating Higher-Order Thinking with Diphthongs. I believe it is important to push the boundaries of simple identification and application to synthesis and creativity. Ok, say what? It’s important to push them up on that Bloom’s Taxonomy with higher order thinking aka use their brains!

Higher-order thinking Activity: Have students use a list of diphthong words to write a fun, short story.

Some organization inspiration. Now that I shared many activity ideas, I would like to share how I organize my no prep printables. I have these broken into different sections with the section dividers I created and include in the resource. It is so nice to have them all pulled together like this, and the levels build up from identifying to writing.

These posters I’ve included below each have a chant at the bottom. It’s a simple chant, where I say, fluttering fly fl-fl-fl, plucking plums pl-pl-pl, clustering clouds cl-cl-cl. Chants have been something that have been a part of my classroom since my first day teaching, but I started off with a different chant format that I have improved over the years. I think it also has been a great way to get me to wake-up in the morning, lol! If you got a projector, you can actually project the pdf on the board instead of holding up the posters!

Idea #2: Play a quick game of memory with the blend cards during guided reading.

While these are the size of a full page, did you know that you can actually adjust your pdf printer settings to print 4 to a page? Yes, you can! I’ve included directions to do this. This means you can use these for a quick game of memory during guided reading. Easy, peasy.

Idea #3: Have a “What Begins With….” literacy center.

These can be set-up in a center, and students can write words on a blank sheet of paper that begin with the letter.

Idea #4: Blend up words with the class.

While either projecting the pdf of these on the board or using the blends poster, you can have students write a word on a sticky note that begins with the blend and bring it up to the classroom.

Another idea, you can record words on the board that students blend-up.

Idea #5: Introduce new blend words during guided reading.

During guided reading, you can use the posters (or mini-posters) to introduce any new words that start with the blend.

Idea #6: Ring it up.

You can print 4 to a page, put them on a ring, and have students use them as a writing reference in a writing center/station or for review.

Idea #7: Go on a blend hunt.

Students can use the a mini-version of the blends poster as a reference tool while they are reading. They can then record any newly discovered blend words in a journal or on a piece of paper.

Not only do these activities work great for blends, but they work great for short vowels, long vowels, ending blends, digraphs, and other graphemes!

(Sing the title to the tune of a famous boy band song from quite a few decades ago. I won’t say which one, but it you get if right, you got the right stuff, lol!)

You know how we all see these cute cvc activities all over the place, but then students get to other phonics activities and suddenly…bam, the availability of hands-on centers are too often replaced with worksheets galore.

One of my wise college professors use to say, “If you can turn it into a game, do it!” Then she would go on to explain how they will learn more because if it is interesting to them, it is engaging to them. If they are engaged, they are learning!

Relevancy is just important! What we view as relevant and what a young child views as relevant is two different things. Most often, they are not thinking about that math they will need when they are 25 to balance the checkbook. Nor are they thinking about how they need to become fluent writers to become a celebrity spy one day, I mean journalist. No way! Of course, they need plenty of writing opportunities. My point is they are not usually thinking they need to improve all their skills, so they can “adult.” To really engage them in learning, its important we get into their world to make it relevant. So what do children find relevant? Things like games, yup, that is relevant.

Hands-on word work activities that tie into what they are learning to read. Relevant.

Doing fun things like feeding sharks and gators as a word work activity in an interactive notebook. Yup, you guessed it. Relevant.

Adding some laughs to learning with some fun puns doesn’t hurt the learning process either. 😉 After all, research shows the connection of our memories with emotional experiences. (I have no research paper to point to on that one. It is researched based though. I recall reading up on it many times in my college days. You’ve probably heard that before too).

Now, I know, I know, I know. No prep printables have their place. Sometimes, you need something for a quick review, homework, for a filler, etc. I get it. I am not saying those don’t have their place, but I am just trying to say its important kids get plenty of kinesthetic, relevent opportunities to master important phonics skills like vowel teams. The main point I am trying to make is worksheets should be kept in moderation, and children need more than just worksheets.

Vocabulary cards are also very handy. They can be used for self-checking and more. Some other ideas include putting them in alphabetical order, games like go fish and memory, matching rhyming words, and whatever else you can dream up. Cards like this are just handy and versatile. 🙂

Now this unit is HUGE. It is over 500 pages! Here is some organization inspiration. Baggies are my best friend, for real. I write on each bag what is inside to keep my sanity. 🙂 I like to keep it all in one spot (in the large coral container, minus the dice. When I plan on using these, I place them in a smaller bin like the shoe box container, and the reading center is ready to rock and roll.

If we want students to become fluent readers and writers, giving them relevant hands-on word work experiences, then we got to keep it relevant to young learners. That is what my vowel team bundled unit is all about. Making it relevant. Engaging. And ultimately, giving students a firm foundation in phonics to enable them to be fluent readers and writers.

You can find these in the store as a big bundle ( 20% off) or you can buy them individually.

Hi everyone! Today, I wanted to share some engaging alphabet activities and ideas to help students learn those letters and beginning sounds. Ideally, all first graders should come to class knowing these. Even in kindergarten, they really should know these. However, you know there is always at least one that is having a hard time with this very important foundational MUST. It is for that reason that I have a bit of an obsession with scouting alphabet activities for children to help them get over this hurdle. And well, maybe it has grown kind of unnatural, lol! I mean, giving a lady stink eye because she grabbed that Beanie Baby at the yard sale that stood for the missing letter I needed for my alphabet stuffed toy collection might have been overboard, lol! Sorry lady, but I saw it first! Or getting excited like a kid to see a bin of tiny knick knack toys that might help complete my collection of small alphabet manipulatives at my age is not very becoming, haha! Ok, so I have an abnormality with the alphabet. But maybe it is not. See, I want to see all kids succeed, and if they are going to succeed, they need their alphabet foundation to be solid. I believe it is important to find multiple ways to teach the alphabet to keep it interesting for students struggling in this area.

With that said, here is some alphabet teaching inspiration to keep that alphabet instruction engaging, hands-on, and fun!

Activity #1 Alphabet Stuffed Toys

These are handy for letter of the week or letter of the day. You can let those who are struggling to learn their letters hold them too! You can use these as part of a sorting activity. Students can lay the pictures that make the same sound as the alligator by the alligator doll. You can have students place them in alphabetical order. I did my collecting of these at yard sales.

Activity #2 Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

Snag up some small notebooks. I snagged up a pack at the Dollar Tree with several in one pack. Students can use them to record words they find that start with that letter. They can also illustrate some of the words too.

Activity #3 Alphabet Art

Add cups of small items in an alphabet center for students to use to form the letter of the day (or week). Then have them make a textured rubbing later on after it is dried. Sorry for no pic on that one yet.

Activity #4 Alphabet Formation with Toys

Have them line up those toys on a letter card! This duals as a fun sensory activity, and helps students who are struggling with remembering how to form those alphabet letters.

Activity #5 Beaded Letter Chains

Another method similar to the toy formation is to to use some pony beads to form bead chains in different sizes. Students can then use them to form letters. For struggling students, you can provide some letter mats for them to form them on top.

Here is the different size bead chains I used for the letters. You will want multiples of each size, of course! If your unsure on what sizes to create, if you do have some letter mats, you can use those to help you make the different sizes needed.

Activity #5 Alphabet Cards

I know this is nothing super original, but I just wanted to remind you how easy it is to create alphabet games with a deck of alphabet cards. All you need is two cards for each letter. These are a must-have for playing a game of go-fish or match. Easy to set-up. Easy to store. Effective and fun! You can also get some letter cards and some with the beginning sound pictures and have students play some sort of matching game with those. For more of a challenge, if you got some pictures of a animals and things that represent a beginning sound with no letter, students can match letters to those. You can usually snag up a set of alphabet cards for a $1 too, so very cheap! 🙂

Activity #6 Alphabet Manipulatives

Students can have multiple, small trinket toys that represent targeted letters. Students can sort them by beginning sound by simply matching them by a letter card. Students can have an alphabet journal and illustrate one of these under each letter too!

Activity #7 Alphabet Shaped Flip Books

Instead of boring worksheets, have them make something with meaning: a flip book in the shape of each letter! Students can work on letter recognition activities. Students can work on handwriting activities, beginning sounds, and letter recognition with these. They can stand solo or be used in an interactive notebook! And best of all, you get a lot of activities stored on just half a page of an interactive notebook! It also really helps because students can revisit their interactive notebooks and take ownership of their work because it becomes a published work. You can find these here.

They include 12 pages of flip book activity pages for each letter plus these find the sound no prep printables that can be attached in an interactive notebook or stand solo too! Find the alphabet flip books here.

These are also offered in smaller sets for those who might just need some letter recognition activities, some beginning sound activities, or some handwriting activities. You can find those in my TPT store at candyclass.com.

Activity #8 Alphabet Soup

This is a very popular activity (and I am not sure who came up with it, so I can give them credit). Put some magnetic letters in a bowl or pot, give students some spoons, and let them scoop up letters. Their response to what they scoop up is very versatile. Student can then write the letters, form the letters with some clay, or form words with the letters. They could also collect all the letter a’s to make a big letter a. So many possibilities!

Activity #9 Sort the Letters

Get some letter beads or any letter form that you can fit many into a cup, and let students sort them into cups.

You get the letter A Flip Flap Book for FREE!!! Click on the image to go grab it or click here. If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to receive notices when I post more by signing up for email.